The Ease of Schedule takes the results from all defensive performances last season and then applies the stats allowed against quarterbacks, running backs and receivers to determine who will have the easier schedule. This is determined by taking the best and worst match-ups for teams and awarding then either a good or a bad game - or just neutral.

In making this as accurate as can be using stats from the previous season, they are related to both team and venue. The reality is that many teams play much differently on the road than they do at home. What the Ease of Schedule has done is to take each NFL defense and consider them as two separate entities. One on the road and the other at home. In some cases, it did not matter - both were great for a team (or really bad). In others, it certainly did. Taking the eight home games and eight road games, each had their highest and lowest games removed to eliminate uncharacteristic extremes. Then the per game average fantasy points allowed were determined from the six remaining home and six remaining road games. From a total set of 64 possibilities (32 defenses both home and away), the best and worst 20 matchups were used.

This is the most accurate picture of defenses from last year - hands down. While regular season EOS will not split them out because of a lack of adequate sample size, the preseason EOS considered venue in addition to the defense - it makes a difference. This is more accurate than any other you will find.

This version combines both tight end and wide receivers since their combination is an accurate reflection of how defenses are preventing passing fantasy points. Taken separately is far less accurate because tight ends are de facto wideouts on a few teams and tight end results are highly skewed against those few teams that had to face Jason Witten, Dallas Clark or Antonio Gates.

Three different views are given below - Weeks 1 to 6 show what players will face as they start the season. Weeks 1 through 16 are shown for a full season view and weeks 14 to 16 show the most common weeks for fantasy playoffs. Below that is the NFL schedule marked for each team to show when they have good (green) or bad (red) match-ups.